The present invention pertains to an armrest and particularly armrests for use in vehicles such as automobiles.
Vehicle armrests have been made in a variety of structural forms. In the past, vehicle armrests have been made using a block of foam material which is upholstered in a conventional manner. Armrests have also included a structural skeleton over which foam material has been molded and subsequently upholstered to form the armrest. More recently, armrests have included polymeric cores which are generally hollow with padding applied only on the supporting surface and the entire armrest subsequently upholstered. U.S. Pat. No. 4,867,500 discloses such an armrest. With polymeric core-type armrests, it is necessary to provide a finished appearance to the upholstery which is consistent with the vehicle interior design. As a result, a variety of finishing techniques have been employed including trim rings, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,015,034 and 4,890,883. This construction provides a trim appearance to the armrest in relatively large openings such as provided by armrests with storage compartments or armrests which are relatively large and require mounting brackets for attachment to the vehicle.
In compact vehicles where space is more limited, the wide armrests of the type disclosed in the above-identified patents cannot be employed. Instead, relatively narrow individual armrests are employed for each of the vehicle seats. Such armrests can provide relatively large support surfaces by two axes of movement as disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/914,791, filed Jul. 16, 1992, and entitled ARTICULATED ARMREST. Also, split cores have been employed which include vehicle accessories such as cupholders as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,246,269. While these various armrest constructions provide desirable armrests for their intended purposes, the goal of a minimum size, inexpensive construction, and yet an attractive and durable armrest was not the primary design goal for these armrest designs.